Transcript

00:00:00.000With the American hostages taken at the US embassy in Tehran, we had a significant population of Iranian students here on the NC State campus

00:00:13.947and they did not all speak with one voice. You had a group of students pro-Shah, a group of students pro-Khomeini, and there was a concern that there might be some sort of violence between those groups.

00:00:32.754But, moreover, the big concern was what would happen if there was a mission to rescue the hostages

00:00:46.082and if something had gone wrong, or for whatever reason in the news just frustration, what about our Iranian students becoming targets?

00:00:58.318So we sat down with Student Life and with some folks who knew Persian/Iranian culture and, quite frankly, with some missionaries who had been in that part of the world,

00:01:12.900and we actually tried to develop contingency plans to keep the Iranian students safe if something had happened,

00:01:25.508and of course you did have the failed rescue attempt, Desert One, which led to development of our Special Forces.

00:01:32.799Fortunately nothing came of that, but I remember getting involved in planning and thinking at the time, "Wait, I'm just a student body president. This is almost like a foreign policy, national security issue."

00:01:47.891There was one day where the frustration led to a huge march by our students - hundreds, I would imagine, not thousands -

00:01:56.993and then there was a sentiment afoot that this should be a daily or weekly occurrence, but there was concern about campus life.

00:02:09.903So the suggestion was made, "Well, why don't you march down Hillsborough Street to the parking lot at Carter-Finley Stadium and we'll convene down there."

00:02:20.537So there were a couple of rallies down there, but I think the sheer distance of the walk took some of the passion out of that.

00:02:28.965But it was a very interesting time to be involved in student government.